Jason Daskalos was able to take advantage of his Sunday (Aug. 6) from a rather unusual incident Saturday night. The Mercedes driver led flag-to-flag to win GT America powered by AWS Race No. 2 on the Streets of Nashville for his third win of the year.
“Last night, I was definitely racing angry after the little incident where a GT4 car cut me off,” Daskalos told SRO America’s Amanda Busick after the race. “Today, I just had to stay calm, be a little more conservative and just bring [the car] home. We did just that.”
Daskalos’ margin of victory was 1.175 seconds over SKI Autosports’ Johnny O’Connell. TKO Motorsports’ Memo Gidley was third, then Mirco Schultis in the Callaway Corvette. Alex Vogel in the OnlyFans Racing Porsche was fifth.
By virtue of setting the fastest lap Saturday night, Daskalos started from pole with O’Connell alongside. Daskalos was able to open up a decent advantage on the start, but the massive pace advantage from Saturday was gone.
Saturday night saw Daskalos drive away from the field at a pace of more than a second a lap. Then, he came upon the Aston Martin of Gray Newell and was put in an untenable situation that resulted in him nosing into the tires.
While the damage was cosmetically minor to Daskalos’ Mercedes, he was still quick. On Sunday, the rest of the field had caught up to him a little bit, thanks to a dry Race No. 1.
Seven minutes into the race, Rusty Bittle hit the wall in the hairpin in his Porsche Cayman. In an attempt to get back around to the pits, the suspension failed on the Korean Veterans Bridge. That resulted in Bittle hitting the wall on the left side of the track, then bouncing to the other side of the track to bring out the safety car. BIttle was ok, but out of the race.
Later on, Todd Treffert, teammate to Daskalos, crashed his Mercedes at the northbound entrance to the Korean Veterans Bridge to bring out the yellow with 14 minutes remaining.
Treffert was able to walk away, but his Mercedes was heavily damaged. The crash resulted in a double retirement for the rookie after a mechanical issue put him out Saturday night.
The race restarted with only a few minutes remaining. From there, Daskalos pulled out a small gap and held on for the win. The victory also gives him the SRO3 points lead over Gidley.
In GT4, Robb Holland started from the pole and ran hard early in order to hold off Ross Chouest. Meanwhile, Saturday’s runner-up Jason Bell was forced to make a pit stop on the second lap after cutting his left rear tire.
Holland was able to pull out a comfortable gap over Chouest after the first restart. Meanwhile, Bell took the wavearound during the caution for the Bittle caution and began to make his way forward.
The second yellow brought everyone back together for the final sprint. Holland was able to pull away to take his second straight GT4 weekend sweep in Nashville.
Holland’s margin of victory was .958 seconds over Chouest. Bell was able to get back to third and nearly got Chouest for second. Newell was fourth and Tony Gaples was fifth.
GT America Powered by AWS: Nashville Race No. 2 Results
GT America teams will be back in action in two weeks at Road America for Round 13 of the championship. That race is scheduled to go green at 1:55 p.m. ET Aug. 19 and will be streamed live on the GT World YouTube channel and SpeedSport1.
About the author
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the site's FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site's Sports Car racing editor.
Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.
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